Sachin Katti, who oversaw computing infrastructure at OpenAI, is leaving the company after about a year.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 14th, citing people familiar with the matter, that Katti will step down next month and is expected to remain connected to the company in an advisory role after his departure. OpenAI plans to make an official announcement to employees today.
His successor will be Uday Ruddarraju, a former employee of Elon Musk’s xAI who was promoted to chief technology officer of computing this summer. He will lead computing strategy and report directly to President Greg Brockman.
◆ Seven months as Intel CTO, one year at OpenAI
Katti joined Intel in March 2025 as CTO and head of AI for its Network and Edge Group, then moved to OpenAI in November of that year, just seven months later.
Intel filled the gap by having CEO Lip-Bu Tan oversee its AI business directly. At OpenAI, Katti was responsible for planning and building computing infrastructure. After an infrastructure reorganization early this year, he supervised the broader infrastructure team and reported to President Brockman.
One of Katti’s main responsibilities was Stargate. The AI data center project, announced jointly by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, faced setbacks early on as negotiations with SoftBank and Oracle were delayed.
According to the WSJ, Katti secured separate agreements with each company and obtained additional computing contracts with major providers, including AWS.
He also revived a strategy of leasing sites directly rather than relying solely on renting data centers built by others. The result was an August agreement with SoftBank’s SB Energy to lease a 10-gigawatt data center in Ohio. Nvidia provided financial guarantees of up to $105 billion, and the first phase is scheduled to begin operations in 2028.
The WSJ previously reported in July that OpenAI had raised its projected computing investment through 2030 from about $600 billion to $750 billion.
◆ Another change at the helm of infrastructure in just two months
The departure marks the second senior executive exit from the infrastructure organization in two months. Chris Malone, who led data centers, left in August.
Malone joined OpenAI in March 2025 after five years at Meta and 10 years at Google. He left shortly after a reorganization shifted his reporting line from Brockman to Katti. At the time, OpenAI said it had an experienced data center team that included Ruddarraju, Brent Mayo, and Spas Lazarov.
Infrastructure is not the only area from which OpenAI executives have departed this year. Fidji Simo, who had been CEO Sam Altman’s second-in-command as head of product and business, stepped down for health reasons and is serving as an adviser.
Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap, Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser, Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rouch, ethics lead Chloe Bakalar, and Sora chief Bill Peebles have also left. Business Insider counted 13 executive departures this year, with many occurring over the past month.
In August, Brockman told CNBC that executive changes were not a sign of instability, saying that he and Altman remained constants. OpenAI is reportedly pushing back its planned IPO from this year to 2027. Apart from naming Katti’s successor, OpenAI has not yet issued an official statement.